Among the many sartorial communication techniques used by politicians to keep the level of public debate as low as possible, we are familiar with the roll-up of shirt-sleeves, symbolizing the move to action, and the untied tie, symbolizing casualness and modernity. Now we're faced with the rise of the novelty sock.
As is often the case, this trend comes from across the Atlantic. In recent years, former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has been spotted wearing "duck," "planet," "R2-D2" and "reindeer head" socks, among others. Following in his footsteps, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have also regularly donned similarly colorful pairs. Most recently, JD Vance, the US vice president, kept the tradition going by appearing in Donald Trump's Oval Office on St. Patrick's Day, wearing "shamrock" socks.
The mistake would be to see this accumulation of monstrosities as a harmless trend, simply demonstrating the ruling class's healthy dose of levity and self-mockery. No, people do not inflict such aesthetic mutilation on themselves, for all to see, without a valid and powerful motivation. In this case, the evidence is clear: these novelty socks are nothing but decoys.
In practical terms, the aim of politicians to accessorize themselves in this way is to focus attention on their ankles, so that we miss out on what should be monopolizing all our attention: their moral lapses of judgment or their crass incompetence. The maneuver is crude, but particularly easy to implement. In fact, it seems to be used by strictly every fan of the novelty sock.
In fact, when he dresses himself with socks adorned with pink flamingos or pizza slices, the ordinary man is hoping to distract us from noticing his badly ironed shirt, his too-tight pants or the ugly heat pimple on his forehead... Better still, consciously or unconsciously, he hopes that this jarring accessory will offset the overall blandness of his style and even of his personality. Basically, he imagines himself, without spending a lot of money, as having a dazzling new charisma. Verdict? Well, no, it doesn't work like that.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.